You've decided to use micro four thirds lenses.Well, here's the first decision.Are you using the pocket cinema camera with an active micro four thirdsmount or are you using the standard cinema camera with a passive one?Remember, the regular cinema camera does not have the ability to control the lens.Everything needs to have manual controls.Here's a very simple manual lens.You'll note that at the end is a micro four third mount, very standard acrossall of the micro four thirds lenses, and I have two controls.

The innermost dial here is the aperture dial andthis adjusts how much light comes into the camera.The outermost dial is going to control the focus, and thisallows you to basically adjust what's in and out of focus.Remember, the more you open up theaperture, the more light that comes in, butthe shallower the depth of field, so you'regoing to end up with less area in focus.Now if we look at the back here and we adjust the aperture.Look quite easily here, you'll see that it opensand closes to let in more or less light.

Now with that, essentially, you haveprecise control, and there are other brandsof micro four thirds lenses that make it easy to have the manual controls.These are often thought of more as cinema style lenses.However, there is a wide range of micro four thirds lenses designedfor photographers that also work well on the video portion of this camera.Couple things to consider though.One thing that I love to look for on one ofthese lenses is the ability to actually control focus with the dial.

Notice here that I could pull the focus ring in andout and when I pull it out there are actually information here.It's marked off with the focal distances, so I could see ifI'm focused to infinity or to simply a foot away from the camera.This makes it easier to control what's happening, and having a dial thatyou can pull in and out to engage manual focus is very, very useful.You'll also see that on some of the otherprime lenses a nice physical dial making this easier.

Some micro four thirds lenses don't have afocus ring, or it doesn't provide as much feedback.You'll notice, for example, we have somecontrol here, but it just keeps freely spinning.At no point in time do I get to the end of the focus in either direction.This makes it very difficult to manually focus, as you don't have areference point, or any marks to indicate where you are within the focus points.I tend to favor those type of lenses thatactually have things marked out on the lens, when possible.

Now, not all lenses and all focal distances or focal lengths aregoing to have the same controls, so you might make a few compromises.Additionally as you go through you'll find specialty lenses.For example, I have some lenses from Lomographythat are essentially plastic lenses that are fantastic togive a really cool look for my music videoprojects or things that are a bit more experimental.You can get simple lenses here that basically are a really wide angle lensmuch of a body cap type lens to let in a lot of light.

And a very simple lens, that you can always keep on the camera,in place of a body cap, but still keep the camera small and compact.There are so many choices when it comes to lenses.Just remember two important pieces of advice.One, if the brand is not listed on the Black Magicwebsite, there's no guarantee that it's going to work with your camera.Now, if you've bought from a vendor thataccepts returns, this may not be a big deal.And I certainly have gotten lenses like the Lomography, like this littleamazon.com, comes from the middle of nowhere, no name special that Ijust found by randomly searching for micro four thirds lenses and Ipicked it from cheapest to most expensive and I actually like it.

Two crazy lenses that are fantastic.This 85 millimeter from Olympus which behaves more like a 200 millimeter isone of the sharpest lenses that I've ever used with incredible quality glass.There are so many choices to use.Just remember, stick with one of the brands that youknow works or make sure you could return the lens.And remember, if you are working with the cinema camera,you're going to need a lens that has manual controls.Not just for focus, but also for aperture.

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Author

Updated

3/22/2016

Released

3/12/2014

Blackmagic cameras are some of the hottest cameras on the market now, offering the ability to shoot both raw video and high-quality production codecs. But they offer lots of options; this course will help you find a camera that fits your budget and your needs. Get to know the features of the popular Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the (4K-capable!) Production Camera, and decide if a Blackmagic is right for you. This review-style course is great for photography geeks who want a true inside look at these cameras' moving parts. Rich Harrington and Robbie Carman cover powering up, attaching lenses, storage requirements, menus, audio capture, and basic recording, and they'll also show how a Blackmagic camera comes to play on location, on a high-energy music shoot.

Topics include:

Examining the camera bodies

Attaching and using lenses

Extending battery life

Preparing SD cards for recording

Navigating menus

Recording audio

Adjusting camera settings

Monitoring and recording

Transferring footage

Working with DaVinci Resolve

Keeping the camera up to date

Skill Level Intermediate

5h 18m

Duration

288,887

Views

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Q; This course was updated on 3/31/2015. What changed?

A: We added two new chapters covering the Blackmagic URSA and Blackmagic Studio Camera.